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| Sandra Bayley (Greens), Michael Johnson (ind), Steven Miles (ALP) | A large attentive audience |
The Greens take very seriously the warning from recognised scientists across the globe that we have until approximately 2015 to start dropping our greenhouse gas emissions, the major driver of the change in our climate.
The purpose of a price on carbon pollution is to re-structure the Australian economy to a sustainable one. While there is no cost to pollute, sustainability will be in the hands of small communities, some businesses and private individuals who understand the urgency of this transformation.
The Greens support Garnaut’s recommendation of a carbon tax on big business which could be implemented within three months of passage through parliament. This would be used to fund the renewable energy sector and reimburse householders unable to afford the transition to renewable energy.
The tax would be an interim measure while a carefully thought out, long term and effective ETS is being formulated.
In addition to the carbon tax and an evolving ETS, the Greens have put on the table our Safe Climate Bill. It endorses 12 areas of action including:
- a 40% reduction in our emissions, as dictated by the science by 2020
- lifting our renewable energy target from 20% to 30% by 2020
- a maximum of 350ppm carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere (we are now already at 392ppm)
- scrapping the anomalous $16-billion in fossil fuel subsidies as committed to at the G20. This subsidy keeps fossil fuel energy costs deceptively low and makes it very hard for renewable industries to compete
- protecting carbon stores in our forests
We support educating the nation that this is the most serious matter the human race has ever faced. We need national climate leadership to meet this challenge.
Sustainable cities and population
Public transport is a central Greens priority, we have long campaigned for stronger federal support. We applauded the Rudd governments inclusion of public transport in Infrastructure Australia, because until then the vast majority of federal funding was for roads. The Greens propose that two thirds of federal transport funding be for public and active transport and one third for roads.
We have long advocated a light rail system for Brisbane that would connect the Western suburbs to the city. We have opposed road projects like the Goodna and Kenmore bypasses that would only add to the dependency on cars.
New urban developments must be based around public transport, and no new dormitory suburbs with inadequate shops and services that thereby force dependence on cars, should be allowed.
We urge the abolition of the fringe benefit tax on company and leased cars.
We support R&D for alternative fuels for public transport.
Finally, let’s think outside the square. Here we are in the sunshine capital of the world: why are we not leaders in innovation in solar power?
Ecological footprint and sustainable population
Profound changes in human behaviour are required if we are to transition to a sustainable lifestyle and restore balance to our rapidly degrading environment. Australia, for example, has the largest houses in the world. We are going to need to re-examine how we live, what we produce and consume, and how we think. And we are going to need skilled guidance in learning how to think and behave differently in response to the challenges we face. It is not a simple matter of informing people of what is happening to the earth as a consequence of our actions because most people are not moved to change in response to information.
We have grown accustomed to measuring success in financial terms. Might “well being” become an alternative criterion for measuring success? Having said that, the long term transition that is required has enormous economic opportunities.
Locally we support urban green space, energy efficiency measures for homes, a gross feed-in tariff for homes and businesses and re-localisation so that we are not needing to cover such vast distances.
Population: until recently Greens were the only party with population policy. We welcome the recent appointment of a sustainable Population Minister. In SEQ we are in the fastest growing urban area in the fastest growing country in the world. We are out-stripping our environment and infrastructure. We support a scientific enquiry to determine Australia’s carrying capacity. We favour a reduction in skilled migration, rather than reducing humanitarian categories of migration.
Refugees and Asylum seekers
Seeking asylum is not illegal, it is a human right, any of us would do the same under similar provocation.
We do not believe in victimising the persecuted, the vast majority of whom are found to be legitimate refugees and are allowed to settle.
We recognise the harm to mental health that occurs with delays with processing and with TPVs. We accept our responsibility as signatories to the U N Convention on refugees. The Greens have long demanded faster on-shore processing of health and security checks so that people seeking asylum can be housed in the community. We have consistently opposed holding children in detention.We strongly oppose splitting of families by any migration process, including the granting of refuge to asylum seekers.
Mental Health
We strongly support increased funding for mental health especially targeting prevention and early intervention. There has been, until recently, a hidden mental health crisis happening in Australia. We are pleased it has recently come to public notice.
- We know what pre-disposes people to mental illness
- We know 75% of mental illness occurs before the age of 25 and that 20% of us will seek mental health support within the course of a year
- We know mental illness increases the chance of drug abuse by 5 to 6 times
- We know mental illness is responsible for the major proportion of suicide which is the leading cause of death under 40
We’d like to thank the ACF for giving us this summary of audience responses (click the picture for a higher-resolution version):
Chamber of Commerce – Inner West Forum 9th August 2010
The future is about sustainability. It makes sense to work together to find out how to do it because unless we’re basing business on sustainability principles we are going to be left behind.
While businesses have always been concerned with economic sustainability, we haven’t been accustomed to asking ourselves “what is the environmental impact of this plan?” whether it’s flying interstate for a meeting or how paper is used in the business.
We are now face to face with the reality that the local, national and international economy depends on having a healthy planet. This transition cannot be done piecemeal with individual businesses bearing a disproportionate burden and will require a structured incentive system to make business sustainable within the next 5-10 years.
Environment Business Australia which comprises 24 large and medium businesses such as NAB, Commonwealth Bank, Price Waterhouse Coopers is one of the strongest advocates for Australia to introduce tough emissions standards.
The UQ Business school has nationally recognised professsors of sustainability who are collaborating with industry for a smart, clean economic future. All of this activity is happening in the electorate of Ryan which is among the most educated of Australian electorates. We have the resourcefulness that will be required for a transition to a clean economy.
It is no longer valid to argue that there is a contest between the ecology and the economy. Extensive research shows that the jobs that will be generated by this transition to clean industry will far exceed the jobs currently provided by polluting businesses. It also indicates that the re-training involved will be relatively small. For those of you interested in the job comparisons I can recommend the report recently commissioned by the ACTU in partnership with the Australian Conservation Commission.
Historically no price has been charged to businesses for pollution and this has to change. Because the health and ecological costs have not been factored in we have become accustomed to, for example, relatively cheap energy. When externalities are factored in, fossil fuels are the most expensive fuels. The cost of the treatment of diseases caused by coal in Australia is estimated to be $2.6 billion annually. Add this to the cost of our electricity and renewable energy will begin to look more attractive.
Most authorities acknowledge that a fair price on pollution, or in other words, a price on carbon, is a pre requisite to seriously bringing down our carbon emissions. Nicholas Stern in his review on the economics of climate change for the British government called climate change “the greatest and widest ranging market failure ever seen”. We have made our wealth at the expense of our habitat.
The Greens recommend an immediate interim carbon tax on the biggest polluters while an ETS is being devised measured way, with long term and clear goals rather than a quick fix and symbolic gestures. This will force the market to work better and in the interests of environmental preservation.
But a price on carbon at this late stage is not enough. In addition to this tax, the Greens put forward a Safe Climate Bill which makes recommendations for action in diverse fields such as sustainable transport, efficiency, retrofitting, protecting our carbon stores in forests and the list goes on, all of which will be necessary to bring down our emissions at a rate required if we are going to have any chance of protecting the future from the massive risks from climate change. I believe the majority of us do want to help our ailing planet. We could reduce our carbon emissions by 20% if we simply implemented efficiency measures.
I was approached last week after our National Seniors Forum by a retired professor who said what we need is a Minister for Waste.
Dick Smith was a guest on the ABC’s Australia All Over yesterday. He was speaking about “our ridiculous commitment to growth”. He, as an entrepreneur, was not decrying growth but, like the Greens, was urging business to use different criteria for measuring success and to pursue growth via mechanisms such as efficiency and reduced waste and duplication.
The Greens have extensive small business policies, all listed on our website:
- We support small business and oppose creeping monopolisation.
- We recognise that an incentive structure to encourage efficiency and uptake of clean technologies must be coherent and not chop and change as have the solar incentive schemes. Small business cannot tolerate and environment where cash flow is disrupted like this. The Greens have a measured approach to phasing in a long term consistent energy plan.
- We did support the RSPT (resource super profits tax) which would have meant a reduction in small business tax to 28% and we recognise its replacement, the MRRT (mineral resource rent tax), means a loss to small business by allowing a reduction to only 29%.
- We also support a gross feed in tariff for businesses which install renewable energy such as solar. This would mean an additional source of ongoing income for small businesses which would be paid for all the energy they generate from the sun.
- We withstood the GFC (global financial crisis) because of our strong banking sector and a budget surplus we could dip in to. The stimulus package passed the Senate only because of the support of the Greens.
On the other side of the political divide, economist professor at La Trobe and long term conservative voter Harry Clarke has come out in support of John Quiggin. He has stated that for the first time in 30 years he will not be voting for the conservatives in this election. He will be voting Green.
NTEU Higher Education Forum 9th August 2010
The Australian Greens believe all people are entitled to free, well funded and high quality life-long public education and training. We understand that universities are places of both teaching and learning and of research. Both these functions are vital to our nation's well-being and prosperity. We also acknowledge the broader roles universities play in our communities and the intellectual and cultural values they represent such as the intrinsic value of knowledge and generation of public intellectual debate.
In the last decade public expenditure on higher education in Australia fell to be one of the lowest in the OECD – falling by 30% in the Howard years. It is currently 0.7% of the GDP.
Given the neglect of higher education in the past and the diversity of issues that need to be addressed, the Greens are concerned that the mega-portfolio of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations can lead to higher education not receiving the attention it deserves. This is why the Greens have called for the establishment of a Higher Education parliamentary secretary who can hear the concerns of the sector directly and action their feedback. Such an appointment would demonstrate the recognition of the importance of education to government decision-making.
STUDENT SUPPORT
Just as our society increases its expectation for participation by young people in higher education, it has failed to keep pace by adequately funding universities to provide the core services and support that students need. Larger classes, more crowded timetables, support services that are increasingly stretched, and an over-dependence on lucrative overseas student fees have become features of the contemporary university. Universities and TAFEs strive to provide the best education they can, and in many cases succeed, but the demands on our academic institutions have out-stripped their resources, and the Greens will support measures to restore more realistic and adequate funding.
Similarly, we believe that students cannot achieve their goals without considerable sacrifice and struggle when so many depend on long hours of part-time casual work to get by, and when so many give up the unequal struggle before the completion of their courses. We believe as a matter of principle that higher learning is a public, not just a private good, and will hold to our long-term goal of abolishing the HECS/HELP schemes and forgiving debts incurred under these schemes. In the shorter term, we will build on our record of improving legislation, such as the Government’s changes to the Youth Allowance, and will support changes to the law that will remove the financial disadvantage faced by those who have to leave home to study.
THE HIGHER EDUCATION WORKFORCE
The Greens recognise that the academic workforce is ageing and that demographic changes call for renewal as well as the retention of experienced staff. We support the NTEU’s proposal to set aside 20% of each university’s annual indexation as being conditional on the development of realistic workforce plans, and we strongly support measures to reduce reliance on casual academic appointments that are too often the fate of those who should be on the first rungs of the career ladder.
We know that there is a genuine concern in universities across Australia about the culture of managerialism that now pervades our campuses. Exhaustive processes, for example, are now required for the most trivial changes to course requirements or to go to a conference. One of my supporters told me of the three-page risk assessment needed to his postgraduate student to present a paper at the Gold Coast. There is widespread concern amongst academic staff that their primary roles - the conduct of research, teaching students and engaging with the community to solve problems – are being made more and more difficult because of these burdensome and often unnecessary requirements.
The Greens will legally guarantee academic freedom and ensure all academic staff have the opportunity to pursue teaching, scholarship and research. Our academics must regain the freedom to direct their work lives in the most productive and creative directions. The decision to pursue an academic or scientific career is seldom about money, but a high level of autonomy in one’s work is an aspect of this life choice we must not allow our university leaders to suppress.
RESEARCH
Almost all modern societies recognise the fundamental role played by research in solving practical as well as intellectual problems, and in shaping our ecomony as well as our culture. Research costs, but ignoirance costs more. The combined NH&MRC and Australian Research Council budgets last year were $1.39-billion. This sounds a lot, but it is one of the lowest per capita rates in the developed world. In absolute terms it’s not even half, for example, of R&D spending provided to Finland’s universities, not even counting the fact that Finland’s population is less than one-third that of Australia’s.
Expressed another way, Australia's total NH&MRC and ARC budget amounts to ¾ of the research budget for the single North American Johns Hopkins University.
Australian higher education has no shortage of talented people, but their capacity to make the key discoveries, to lead the way to a new economy, is severely hampered by the low levels of funding. This prevents us even providing our budding young researchers with a decent wage and prospects beyond the next short-term contract.
The Greens support significant increases in the longer term to our
universities' research capacities and will give these the priority they must have – this is not a luxury item in the nation’s budget, it is the foundation of our prosperity and well-being.
Finally, we must recognise that all these policies, for better supporting students and academics, for securing a stronger research base, for making our campuses into communities that will attract the talented and help them to achieve, are based on one vital premise: We cannot focus on the merely good while we ignore the absolutely vital.
Without the enactment of serious measures to minimise the extent and impact of climate change and move urgently to a renewable energy future, our universities, like the rest of our society, will be the followers, not the leaders, our students will not have the future they aspire to, and our community will in so many ways be the poorer.
We must listen to voices like those of UQ’s celebrated conservation biologist Hugh Possingham, who has charted the way to preserve and restore natural habitats, Director of UQ’s Climate Change Institute Ove Hoegh-Guldberg , whose recent paper in Science warns of drastic and unprecedented change in global marine ecosystems, UQ Federation Fellow John Quiggin whose work points to the economic and political strategies needed to support the necessary societal changes, IPCC scientist Dr Richard Conant soon to join QUT’s Institute of Sustainable Resources, who is pioneering the understanding of how carbon and nitrogen are regulated by land management practices, and the talented scientists at Griffith University’s National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility and its other significant research programs which provide the knowledge to deal with these environmental challenges.
This is a time when the true value of a higher education – the capacity to steer the nation and the world towards a better future – must be realised. Not through small, individually worthwhile but wholly inadequate “direct actions”, not abdicating a central responsibility of leadership to 150 names from the phone book, but by taking the evidence these and so many other committed scientists, and by showing the political leadership, and the principled actions, for which I and my fellow Ryan Greens are working so hard.
National Seniors Forum 4th August 2010
I would like to acknowledge both the Turrbul people who lived here on this land before we did – and also acknowledge you as National Seniors as current elders in the electorate of Ryan – and my fellow presenters.
We Seniors are in an era of our lives where we have faced up to a lot of life’s challenges and are now able to reflect on the things that matter most. As we age some of our faculties decline (frustratingly) and others improve. I watched this in my mother whose mind continued to expand right up until she died recently aged 100. Our society must guard against ageism based on chronological age which fails to appreciate the richness and depth that mature people bring to society, including to the work force.
As we age some issues crystalise out and come into focus and I know they will be of concern to you. The Greens are strong on social justice and that includes justice for Seniors.
I’m going to start with HEALTH. The Greens absolutely support quality health care, including mental health and dental health. We know that 20% of Australians need mental health support every year. We would immediately restore free dental care to the over 65s and over 5 years would roll out Denticare, which would operate similarly to Medicare.
Aged care is in crisis and requires a catch up in funding for both building aged care facilities and equiably paying the nursing staff. The Greens support the aged remaining at home as long as possible.
I’m going to give you a health statistic that may surprise you. It shocked me when I read it. And I work in health as a family doctor. ‘Australians have the highest rate of admission to hospitals in the world.’ I invite comment and questions on this in the question session. The Greens support preventive health care. Twenty years ago I read an NH & MRC report stating that two thirds of our illnesses are caused by our own actions and choices. We need to wise up on how to keep well.
FINANCIAL SECURITY
The aged who have given their lives over to building our society should not have to struggle financially. The recent $30 rise in the aged pension depended on the support of the five Greens in the Senate. In fact, Bob Brown had been arguing for it for years. The Greens also initiated flexible working hours for carers, ensuring their ongoing income. And, of course, the freedom to work without financial disincentives.
Lastly I am going to address THE FUTURE. Overall, most of us in the developed world have fared very well for ourselves, but a lot of our achievements have come at a huge cost to our environment and the stability of our climate. Almost every other species of plant and animal is declining or already extinct while we continue to multiply and grow more financial wealth. This truth is confronting and hard to face, but denial of what is happening is the greatest danger we face because it paralyses us from taking the action that is so essential.
We have seen glimpses of the ailing climate system last year in the deaths of hundreds in the heat waves in South Australia and Victoria and in the fires that followed this extreme heat. You and I will possibly miss the worst of this unfolding environmental catastrophe, but our children and grand children will not – unless we learn to think differently and help guide them to a sustainable future.
We Seniors have an important role in preparing our descendants for a very different future.
SUM UP
There is a prediction by independent election analysts that the Greens will have the balance of power in the Senate after this election.
If this eventuates I want to reassure you that the Greens will take a realistic and constructive approach to governing. We have grown from a party whose origins were in environmental protection to a mature party with policies on all major issues of governance. I think any of you who have listened carefully to Bob Brown, Greens leader, over the years will acknowledge that he is a man of consistency and integrity. He also recognises the need to compromise with his negotiating partner and work together for the best possible outcome when opinions are divergent.
Perhaps 70% of us vote for the same party every election. We are creatures of habit and tradition.
The depths of the Greens thinking and policies are rarely exposed in the media, so unless you go looking you could be excused for thinking the Green Party is concerned only with the
environment and possibly another 1 or 2 small issues. On the contrary, the Greens have well thought out policies on at least 43 major issues. They are all there to read on the website. The question of the economy comes up in relation to the Greens and whether we have the skills to manage the economy.
Again, these matters are given detailed scrutiny and the best minds are utilised. You may have noticed our local prominent University of Queensland economist, John Quiggan, is now putting his public support and vote behind the Greens.
We invite your trust.
Make Poverty History Forum on Overseas Aid 29th July 2010
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| Two other candidates showed up at the forum (seen with Sandra and members of the audience). |
The biggest obstacle to correcting this monumental problem is our failure to face it, to take responsibility for our actions.
The people in the developing world have not caused this problem. Their simple lifestyles are cleaner than ours yet they are already facing life threatening consequences of our consumption. There are already at least 300,000 deaths a year from the consequences of climate change. Climate change is putting at risk the Millenium Development Goals. Tragically, while living lives of extreme disadvantage, the poor are now having to face the added devastation of rising oceans and unpredictable weather causing crop failure. (Ref poignant Oxfam series “Sisters on the Planet”)
We cannot escape from these realities. The Greens will not allow us to. We as a nation must come of age and ask ourselves – who are we? What is it that we value? Is it life on earth or is it money?
We are the problem. We are also clever. We need to focus our ingenuity on transforming from a fossil fuel based economy to a renewable, non-toxic energy economy. How can we justify continuing to poison the planet?
The number of hungry on the earth is actually climbing (one billion last year) and we are two thirds of the way through the MDG time frame for halving world poverty. Food prices for the staples, rice and wheat have almost tripled from 2005 to 2008. There are many complex causes of this but none more important than the diversion of grain to fuel, a solution we came up with to reduce emissions from our cars. It means the poor are now unable to afford their grain because it commands a higher price as a source of fuel.
A second cause of the increase in the number who are hungry is unabated population rise. Many women in poverty dread finding themselves pregnant agin when they can barely support the children they have. It is pleasing to see the UN belatedly added a new target to the millennium goals – universal access to reproductive health education by 2015. The UN did this when it conceded that the Millenium Development Goals are unlikely to be reached while population continues to rise at the current rate. Any population that grows indefinitely will outgrow its life support.
As disappointing as the Copenhagen outcome was, it did come up with an agreement that developed countries would contribute to a fund to support less resourced countries to adapt to the problems caused by the change in their climate that we are largely responsible for. This was to be in addition to previous commitments to overseas aid. Yvo De Boer of the UN said it would be a breach of trust to take this adaptation money out of the overseas aid budget. This is what has happened in Australia. This money is for disadvantage that existed prior to the known impacts of climate change.
The Greens commend the current government for increasing our overseas aid commitment from 0.3% to 0.5% of GNI by 2015 though we acknowledge it is currently approximately 0.33%. We urge the government to increase aid further to the 0.7% agreed for developed nations if we are to have any chance of reaching the goals by 2015. A climate change adaptation fund must be in addition to our previous commitment to overseas development aid.
Aid is not a simple transfer of funds. We acknowledge that it can easily become misappropriated. We do not support the empowering of ourselves in transmission of aid by e.g. high salaries to western advisors but rather the empowering of local peoples. Our aid must be transparent and accountable otherwise it betrays both the givers and the intended recipients.
The Greens propose that the next government establish a new ministry for overseas aid and international development. The Howard government had a Ministry for Trade and Overseas Development but it was only in place for one term.
The Greens also support a Charter of Rights which would adopt Australia’s international human rights obligations into domestic law. The government’s Human Rights framework is a welcome step in the right direction but government has ignored the key recommendation of the Human Rights Consultation Report by refusing to consider a Human Rights Act. Without this, human rights in Australia will continue to be dealt with in an ad hoc manner.
Some of the big countries are surging ahead with the goals eg. In Brazil in the last five years the income of the poor has risen by 22% and the rich by 5%. Very few countries reduce inequality and poverty at the same time. The smaller countries, many of them our near neighbours are not faring so well.
The world has the resources to ensure hunger no longer exists. It is all about our priorities.
The key sectors of the MDGs are food, water, health and education. There are no luxury items there.
We request leadership at the federal level in both our overseas aid responsibilities and fair trade and in rising to the challenge of an altered climate.
OPENING ADDRESS
QUEENSLAND LAUNCH – MT COOTHA 25th July 2010
Good morning everyone.
It is my pleasure to welcome you all to the heights of the electorate of Ryan.
Incredibly, Mt Cootha, or KUTA as the Turrbul people called it, was once known as ‘One Tree Hill’. Brisbane was built from its timbers.
But the power of nature prevailed, and despite being within 10 kms of the city it has returned to being a designated biodiversity hot spot including habitat for the koalas, now declared “vulnerable”. For those who don’t know, we have lost 51% of koalas in the last 3 years from the Brisbane area. These forests which are part of the D’Aguilar Range make up ¾ of Ryan’s land area. They are what we respectfully acknowledge as the lungs of Brisbane as well as its water
catchment.
We absolutely agree with Tim Lowe’s report on the impacts of climate change on biodiversity in Brisbane that its protection should be our utmost priority. There is a deep unease among the people of Ryan from our great places of learning, that is shared by ordinary people who treasure our green spaces. Everyone from researchers at the University of Queensland and CSIRO to our people in the suburbs is worrying that our future generations are not assured the same lives of privilege we have enjoyed unless we build an economy that works with and not against our natural heritage such as this magnificent place.
I am proud to be the Green’s Candidate for Ryan and on behalf of its citizens welcome Bob Brown, Larissa Waters, our soon-to-be first Greens Senator from Queensland, party members and supporters to our launch today.
